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Canning Meat: A Tutorial

Not gonna lie…

I was a bit leery of the whole canned meat thing when I first started homesteading.

I suspect it stems from my irrational fear of potted meat food product. Ever since I was a little kid, I have thought that sounded like the worst possible thing you could put into your mouth… (My apologies to any meat product fans out there)

Thankfully, canning meat at home is a whole different ballgame, and a skill you’ll definitely want to add to your homestead repertoire. Plus it’s really not any more difficult than canning veggies. Honest!

Why Canning Meat is a Skill You Need to Have:

1. It’s totally convenient. Grab a jar from your pantry, pop it open, and you have wonderfully tender meat all ready to add to your recipes

2. It saves on freezer space. We have two freezers out in our barn, but they are ALWAYS too full, no matter what I do. Anytime I can store food at room temperature, it’s a huge plus for me.

3. It’s a smart preparedness measure. Lest you be stuck eating dry cereal and crackers if your power goes out…

4. It tastes darn good. Really! Home canned meat is tender, juicy, and can be seasoned however you like.

A Super-Duper Very Important Warning

You must, must, must use a pressure canner if you plan on canning meat– no exceptions. Since meat is a low-acid food, a regular boiling-water canner will not be able to heat it at a high enough temp to make it safe for storage. I know pressure canners may seem intimidating at first, but they are actually simpler than you think. I have a full pressure canning tutorial here. It’ll walk you through the process, and teach you how to pressure can without blowing up your house (always a good thing).

OK, enough chit-chat. Let’s can some meat!

How to Can Meat

(Hot Pack Method)

Beef, venison, elk, or pork

Salt (optional)

Water

Canning jars, lids, and rings (quarts or pints are fine)

A pressure canner

Trim the meat to remove excess fat and gristle. (I usually try to do this when the meat is half-frozen. It makes the trimming much easier)

Slice into strips against the grain, and then cut into roughly 1″ cubes (just eyeball it– no need to be exact).

Place the cubes into a large stockpot and brown thoroughly on all sides. If your meat is especially lean, you may need to add a bit of fat (such as bacon grease, lard, or coconut oil) to the pan to prevent stickage. (Yes, that’s a word)

The goal here is to simply brown the cubes— you don’t need to cook them all the way through.

Place the browned meat cubes into clean glass jars, leaving 1″ headspace. If using quart jars, add 1 teaspoon of salt. If using pint jars, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Pour water (how much you need will depend on how many jars you are canning) into the pot you used to brown the meat, and bring it to a boil. This will capture all the lovely bits from the bottom of the pot and create extra flavor in your finished product.

Ladle the boiling water over the meat in the jars, leaving 1″ headspace.

Wipe the rims, adjust the lids/rings, and process in a steam pressure canner as follows:

Pints: 75 minutes

Quarts: 90 minutes

Use 10 pounds of pressure, UNLESS you are 1,000 feet or more above sea level. If that is the case, increase to 15 pounds of pressure.

fork tender

Kitchen Notes:

I don’t have exact amounts for this recipe, because it just depends on what you have available. You can either can your meat immediately after butchering, or save back several of the tougher cuts to can later.

The salt is entirely optional and only added for flavor, not for any preservation benefits.

Add your melt-in-your-mouth canned meat to soups, stews, casseroles, skillets suppers, or just warm it up and eat it out of the jar.

It’s also possible to can ground meat, soups, and stews. Those tutorials will be coming soon!

Trim the meat to remove excess fat and gristle. (I usually try to do this when the meat is half-frozen. It makes the trimming much easier)

Slice into strips against the grain, and then cut into roughly 1" cubes (just eyeball it-- no need to be exact).

how to can beef, venison, or elk with a pressure canner for fork-tender meat!

Place the cubes into a large stockpot and brown thoroughly on all sides. If your meat is especially lean, you may need to add a bit of fat (such as bacon grease, lard, or coconut oil) to the pan to prevent stickage. (Yes, that's a word)

The goal here is to simply brown the cubes--- you don't need to cook them all the way through.

how to can beef, venison, or elk with a pressure canner for fork-tender meat!

Place the browned meat cubes into clean glass jars, leaving 1" headspace. If using quart jars, add 1 teaspoon of salt. If using pint jars, add ½ teaspoon of salt.

how to can beef, venison, or elk with a pressure canner for fork-tender meat!

Pour water (how much you need will depend on how many jars you are canning) into the pot you used to brown the meat, and bring it to a boil. This will capture all the lovely bits from the bottom of the pot and create extra flavor in your finished product.

Ladle the boiling water over the meat in the jars, leaving 1" headspace.

Wipe the rims, adjust the lids/rings, and process in a steam pressure canner as follows:

Pints: 75 minutes

Quarts: 90 minutes

Use 10 pounds of pressure, UNLESS you are 1,000 feet or more above sea level. If that is the case, increase to 15 pounds of pressure.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

In Romania’s countryside people who are raising pigs are using almost the same process as described here. The exception is that instead of water they are using the pig’s melted lard. Thus no need for a pressure canner. The jars are placed on a metal plate to absorb the heat of the lard and prevent them from breaking. Afterwards, the jars are left to cool down, then placed in storage. Because of the lard the meat becomes very tasty. And it can last for a year, without becoming rancid.

Is that pork confit then? I love to hear about the traditional methods used to preserve food (esp meats) but that sounds a bit scary if they make a vaccuum in the jar without the pressure canning to ensure it gets hot enough. But then again, if that’s how it was always done….

I love how you de-mystify skills and empower folks with your posts! I have so far pressure canned turkey, duck (from older layers) and pork stock, but not any red meat yet. I think the energy/freezer space issue is what really draws me to this method of putting up meats, plus the tenderizing effect on older poultry muscle is quite amazing.The ONLY downside I have about pressure canning is how log it takes per batch, I need 2 so I can tandem pressure can, hahaha! I also pressure can dry beans, a great thing to do in winter when you don’t mind the stove heating all day. So much cheaper than store bought canned!
Thanks again!

I love pressure canning. I haven’t done beef yet. I have canned a lot of chicken. My MIL canned venison and she used it in sandwiches.
Yes, anything that can be stored in anything other than one of my freezers is a huge plus.

I’m a huge fan of canning….but have stayed clear of canning meat…or even using a pressure cooker. I know it would be an adventure worth taking up, but I guess you could say…I’m also a bit “leary.” –thanks for the post!!

I usually don’t precook the meat. I cut the toughest parts of the deer into 1″ cubes and pack them raw into pint jars. I add just a pinch of canning salt (iodine free) and top with water leaving 1″ below the rim.

Then I can at 15 psi of pressure for 90 minutes. It really softens the otherwise tough deer cuts.

When I use my meet in stews and such, I season it then. But it’s very good without additional seasoning. Beats Dinty Moore any time 🙂

My grandpa said his mother used to can sausage. We actually just talked about this topic this past summer. He said that she would cook up the sausage, place the sausage in the jars, pour the grease into the jars, seal them, then flip them upside down. As they cooled it would seal the jars. Anyone else ever heard of this? Would it be safe? It was good enough for them but would their be risks associated with it?

I love canning meat…..chicken beef cubes, pork cubes, bacon, ground beef…..I do cook my ground beef first…..but everything else goes in raw. The most tender, flavorful meat ever! I buy a lot in bulk, from Zaycon. So convenient for dinner in a hurry…beef or chicken for any dish really..casseroles, tacos, burritos, chilis, quick meat and potato dinner, hash….love having it on hand, and that pressure canning/cooking really does something special to the meat! I also love how you make it sound un intimidating to anyone wanting to try for the first time. It is actually easy and so rewarding to see all that shelf stable meat! 😀

i have been using this method for years for canning fish (salmon and trout). of course, i don’t cook it first, just cut it up into large chunks and pack it tightly into the jars. i do put non-iodized salt in the jar. i leave the skin on to get more flavor into the meat. but then i have to scrape the skin off when i use it, or else when i mix it up it looks gray and ugly. but if i remove the skin before canning it, it just doesn’t have all that good flavor from the fat. then i process it as you described. so much better than store bought tuna.

I have canned a lot of broths, soups, beans and vegetables with my Presto pressure canner. Salmon in the past too. I like to smoke it first then can it, Salmon is great this way. Haven’t tried canning red meats yet, soon though. Thanks for all the info and blogs, I love reading what everyone else is doing.

Can anyone suggest a good pressure canner? I have a pressure cooker but it does not have a guage on it. I am new to canning and I am hoping to start this summer becoming more self sufficient. We have had our chickens for almost a year and I am eager to start relying more on what I grow than what I get at the grocery store.

2 kinds of pressure cookers – with and without gasket; I’ve use ‘Mirror” pressure cooker (with gasket, replaced x1) for years. But if I upgrade/replace, I’ll try the gasket-less model. Either way, just follow the instructions with the canner.

I, too, was leery and afraid of food poisoning, but my dh convinced me to try canning meat. We canned chicken breasts, cut them in half and put them in pint-jars. Our BH&G canning cookbook stressed that you must boil the meat for ten minutes before tasting (to avoid any food poisoning), so I always do. It’s wonderful to go to the garage, pick-up my canned chicken, and use it for soups, taco/burrito casseroles, anything is made so muck quicker!

I have been canning beef, pork, chicken ,venison, hamberger for many years. I cut red meats enough to fit in the jar, raw packed, no water added, it makes it’s own juice in the jar…. For venison, I add beef bullion, powdered onion soup mix, it takes away the wild taste. You can throw in real onions too. 10 lbs pressure for 90 minutes.
We have eaten canned beef that was 17 years in the jar, it was wonderful… One thing I would like to add,,, canned meat does not look appealing in the jar..

I am new to your website and I love it! Thank you for putting your time into it, I have learned so much. I am new to canning and my question is, how long can canned meat, veggies, jams etc., be stored for? I have heard anywhere from 1 – 3 years, but wanted to see if that was more or less the time line you or your readers used? Or if normally it would be up to one year?

Is there anything different I need to do with canning chicken than other meats? I have a lot of chicken in the freezer, as we butchered recently. I would like to make some room in the freezer. Besides, it’s now winter, and good time to can what I have available.

My mom gave me a pressure canner for Christmas a couple years ago and it sat in my basement because I was terrified to use it…I just knew that I was going to blow up my house. My sister in law and I decided to get together and be courageous and we can a hundred pounds of chicken. It was amazneing and life changing!
we called the butcher and asked where the price breaks were to get a great deal and we ended up getting chicken tenders for a 1.75 a pound. we took the fresh chicken tenders and put the raw chicken right into the pint jars no salt needed no water needed and pressure can them for 75 minutes at 13 pounds of pressure for our elevation.
we get one pound of meat per pint and it gives us about a half cup of broth makes about a half cup of broth.
we use it for everything from sweet and sour chicken two enchiladas and chicken salad sandwiches and Hawaiian haystacks. It shreds like a dream!
We have also tried boneless spare ribs and they are processed the exact same way and come out tasting just like they came out of the slow cooker. The fat cools on top but I think it adds more flavor.
we use these for sweet pork burritos and barbecue pork sandwiches they are delicious!
I am so glad that you posted this tutorial it will hopefully let people realize that it’s not so scary and it’s worth the effort.
Debi

Very addicting….. then I’m thinking what did I get myself into. ?. I just took my quarts of elk out and and I have my chile con elk (carne) in now. I’m only a few years into canning but I have my husbands grandmother to help which is always very supurb!

Just wanted to say Thank You for sharing your wisdom. You are such an inspiration, I love checking all your post, I never miss reading a one of them, I admire your wonderful efforts and it is a blessing you take the time to share with others. You have my vote, Blessings

reply to couch: regarding salt. i use non-iodized salt because that is how i was taught. not sure why. i know when we smoke fish, all the recipes say to use non-iodized salt. maybe some sort of reaction between the fish and iodine???

Oh! Thank you so much for this blog about canning meat. My husband grew up ranching and his mom canned meat. He’s been saying for years he wants to can some but we didn’t know how. Unfortunately, I didn’t get his mom to teach me before she passed away a few years ago. My husband and his brothers all want to get together and can. So this year at the holidays we will be canning meat together. Of course, I’ll try it out before then.
I’ve been meaning to write and tell you I’ve actually been to Chugwater. I thought it was so cool! I lived in Oklahoma back then but now live in the mountains West of Denver. So we are relatively close neighbors. We live at 8,100 feet. Your info for high altitude is so appreciated! It’s hard to find good info. I’ve really been exploring more natural ways of living. I’m so happy I found you! I’m a fan!

I pack raw venison which is typically very lean so little to no fat. I add 1 tspn creole seasoning (salt would work just fine, just prefer this flavor that seems to not be overwhelming in any recipe after canned) and 1 tlbs beef broth or stock. That’s it. Can at 10 lbs pressure for 99 minutes. Every single Har is filled to the top with its own juices when done. Very good. Super easy and most important so quick to get in the jars!

I have been cannon meat for about 2 yrs now. My absolute favorite is venison, we pack raw and can and it makes its own broth. Someone mentioned it’s better then Dinty Moore, and they are right!! Brown an onion and some garlic then add you can of venison, a can of carrots and cut up left over baked potatoes. Warm together. Salt and pepper to suite. Serve with noodles or rice!! Such a fast and filling meal!! Thanks for the tutorial!!! Well thank for your awesome posts!

A woman gave me two jars of canned venison years ago, and I’ve been telling everyone ever since….it was THE BEST meat I’ve ever had in my entire life! No joke! I already love venison, but what was cool is that canning it gave it an entirely new flavor. It was like discovering a new meat! And she told me all she did is add 1 tsp of salt and water…nothing else. I can’t wait to start canning beef, and venison (hubby has to get a deer first, lol)…but I’m kind of stuck right now. I have a wonderful T-Fal pressure cooker that I got about 15 years ago, and it works wonderfully…but I have no idea how much pressure it cooks at? Even if I could find manufacturer specs, I’ve been told that with age pressure cookers can lose their pressure, so how do I know for sure it’s got 15 lbs? I’m over 1100 feet above sea level, so have to do 15… Any suggestions how to test pressure?

Hi,
I have canned pinto beans before using your tutorial and have had great results.
However, to save time, I was wondering if it is possible to fill all of my jars with food at the beginning of the canning session and keep them hot in the dishwasher, adding them to the canner during the day as it is ready for them.
Would this affect anything?
Thank you.

Hi Jill, love your posts! I get so excited when I read them and can’t wait to try something you’ve already done. Last year I did beef stew and Bolognese sauce. We bought the next to the largest size pressure canner from Amazon. It was great to just open up a jar when hubby and my son came in for lunch in the middle of winter and I’d have homemade bread ready. I was very popular. My Bolognese sauce was good but could have been better. I cooked it all the way so when I put it in the pressure canner for the amount of time to can it it had lost some flavor. I have since spoken to an expert at an extension center and she didn’t go along with me canning my recipe because it had wine and milk in it. She strongly recommended I leave out the milk. I will make and can it again but will leave out the milk or cream and add it when I heat it up and cook it out a little more. I didn’t can my beef stew yet because I was very busy in the fall so I’ll be doing it soon. I just put the stew meat in a container in the freezer which is taken up room. Well, ciao for now and thanks so much for sharing .

I’ve canned chicken for many years. Partly because my Mom did when I was growing up. It is so convenient! Definitely a fast food when you’re in a hurry! Whe I can chicken I’m left with all the backs which I use to make stock (which I also can). We buy a years worth of chicken at a time from a local farmer so canning some saves a bit of room in the freezer for other things. This year we had some beef roasts and steaks from our yearly purchase that were quite tough so we canned them. It’s been so great! Nice and tender, and a quick meal when we’re in a hurry.

Our electric was off one winter for 17 days and the freezer was full! We canned hamburger cooked in tomato juice, everything else was canned raw: chicken tenders, chicken legs and thighs (we feed the soft bones to the dog when we open a jar), brisket, a roast and salmon. It saved our food from having to be thrown out. Its a great idea to can meat!

I have been canning for quite some time and have an extensive inventory of meat, veggies and fruit. I love to can and bake but don’t have recipes for cooking with canned meat. (And I am not very creative in that area). Any suggestions for cookbooks or recipes to help with making good meals with what I have already canned? It gets kinda boring just warming stuff up.

I used my canned venison just like I would if raw. It’s just quicker! I made barley soup with it yesterday. Just added my canned venison without draining as the broth is delicious. I’ve also used in my crockpot for a stroganoff. Hash. Anything you would use it for it works perfectly with less cooking time!

I’m sure someone has already shared this, but just in case, I pack my venison raw. Cut up chunks, doesn’t matter what size as long as they fit in jar. Pack it in. I add tspn of creole seasonings and 1 tlbs beef broth. That’s it. No more water. Cook at 10 lbs pressure for 90 minutes. When finished the jar is filled with its own juices. Meat is fork tender. So quick and easy my husband enjoys doing it!

I use chicken or vegetable broth instead of water, it adds flavor and lots of spices. When you use your canned meat it is delicious over pasta, make a white sauce and then add the meat for stroganoff (sp?) or make soup out of it 🙂

I just killed a nice young cow moose this past w/e. Am excited to try it in different ways and my mother-in-law has agreed to help me can some, as she has all the equipment. My question is should it be canned plain, various spices, if so, what are some good combos?

I am brand new to this. I have some experience, as I helped a friend a few years ago, who has been canning venison from a recipe over several generations old. So after witnessing this & reaping the benefits of this deliciousness I want to give it a try. My first task will be chicken & beef. Can anyone recommend canning jars? I know they’ve become popular for decoration so not sure where to get the “canning” jars. Any help is very much appreciated!!!

Oddly enough, I have been pressure canning for some time, but I don’t water-bath can. I have cases of canned beef, canned pork, canned chicken, chili, stews, etc. All neatly labeled, cased up, and stacked in the pantry. Days when I’m out of town and my wife wants one of my signature meals, or when we’re late, or busy, or just lazy ;-), we dip into the jars for either a complete meal or pre-cooked meats to put something together quickly.

Here’s my tip aka secret to amazing canned venison. I add 2 beef bouillon cubes per quart jar. Wow! I use the canned venison in every dish I use beef in. It is so tasty I take venison dishes to church dinners and such, no one can even taste anything “gamey”. As a matter of fact, I have fooled people who swear they can always tells when it’s venison and refuse to eat deer meat. We won’t eat it any other way at our house! Try it, you’ll be amazed!